I’ve just spent the last few months penciling, inking and coloring a 28 page graphic novella for VOM and Clash Entertainment. It’s a story about Russell Stendal who was captured by Colombian guerrillas and held hostage. Ben Avery adapted the story for comics – I’m honored to be able to work with him. Here are a few random panels that I liked, a few panels in black and white and some of the pre-production character sketches. I penciled and inked the story entirely in Manga Studio 5 and colored in Photoshop (though, Manga Studio 5 is such an outstanding program, I think the next time I’ll do everything in that). It was fun working all digitally – but it leaves me with no hard copies of anything…which is sort of strangely sad to me for some reason. Anyway here are the images:

I’m currently awaiting a script to draw another graphic novella for vOM. While I’m waiting, I drew a sample page inspired by the book it is based on. Probably can’t share any more details than that…and this page isn’t from any script – so it’s basically just to provide an example of my approach to the story artistically.

I’ve been doing my best to keep drawing everyday. So far I’ve filled up a few sketchbooks, and I have a total of 8 currently that I will randomly grab and draw in. I like to use a brush pen to sketch with…I prefer it to markers and even to pencils…though I’ve been trying to train myself to pencil things more often. I just like the way a brush feels…I think I can be more loose in my work using it…but obviously, my draftsmanship suffers. Anyway…here are a few random pages to share with you.

Also…I should mention that my brush of choice is the black or gray Pentel brush pen...the cheap one. I have the Pentel pocket brush which I use a lot…but the ink isn’t as dark as the cheaper Pentel brush pen, so I tend to grab it first. What do you use to sketch with?

Well…I’ve been busy lately. I’ve started working freelance for a local screen print company called Inktrax. A couple of my friends work there who suggested asking me to help fill out their sizable backlog of orders. They’re really talented guys, and I feel way out of my league working with them (especially working with type and fonts). Anyway…here’s a design I did for a local surf shop’s t-shirt line.

Here’s the final art:

In other news…the new owner of Oatmeal Studios Greeting Cards contacted me after finding my old file lying around somewhere. We’re already working on two new cartoons for cards! Exciting stuff!